Freeman's Mind 2: The Novelization
by Rezalon
Summary: Freeman's Mind is back! Based on the critically-acclaimed machinima by Ross W. Scott. I plan on writing up written versions of each episode as Ross releases them.


Freeman's Mind 2: The Novelization

by Rezalon

based on the critically-acclaimed machinima by Ross W. Scott

Chapter 1: Hawaii

Freeman stepped through the portal, after which the government-man simply said 'Wisely done Mr. Freeman, I will see you up ahead...'. All of a sudden, the government-man appeared right in front of Freeman, each other's faces mere inches apart.

'Rise and shine, Mr. Freeman', the government-man spoke into Freeman's face.

'AAAAAAAAAAH!', Freeman screamed aloud, very uncomfortable with how close his new employer's face was with his. "Back. The. Fuck. Up!".

'Not that I wish to imply you have been sleeping on... the job...', the government-man continued to drone on in a monotonous tone as he slowly moved away from Freeman.

'Back it up, keep going!', Freeman demanded, not being able to move himself for some reason; it appeared as if he was completely frozen.

'No one is more deserving of a rest...', the government-man complimented Freeman as he appeared immediately in front of him again.

'AAAAAAAAAAH!', Freeman screamed again. 'STOOOOOP! Just stooooop!'. Whatever the government-man was saying, Freeman completely ignored him, begging to himself that the creepy suit would just let him go.

'Your breath smells like paint!', Freeman complained as the government-man finally gave him some breathing room. 'Personal space! PERSONAL SPACE YOU FREAK! Uuuuugh...'.

The government-man gave up, realizing he wouldn't be able to get through to Freeman, deciding to take his leave, but not before bidding Freeman farewell with a single sentence: 'The right man in the wrong place can make all the difference in the world... so, wake up, Mr. Freeman. Wake up and smell the ashes...'.

The government-man faded into thin air as Freeman was questioning who came up with the quote his new employer said. Realizing he was gone, Freeman finally had the time to inspect his new surroundings.

'Am I on Earth again?!', Freeman asked himself as he looked out the windows of the train he now inhabited. He assumed the train was entering a station.

'Good, well I'm not going back!'. He looked to his right to see two other passengers, and immediately walked over to the one closest to him.

'YOU HEAR ME?! I'M NOT GOING BACK!'. The passenger was taken aback by this fellow citizen screaming at him. In fact...

'Didn't see you get on...'. The passenger peered at Freeman with curiosity.

'Yeah, where are we?', Freeman queried. 'This is Hawaii, right? That was the deal; he was going to send me to Hawaii!'. Freeman looked outside the train's window again to get his bearings. 'This doesn't look like Hawaii. Does Hawaii have a railway? I think they do...'.

Freeman turned around and decided to greet himself to the other passenger.

'Aloha!', Freeman said.

'No matter how many times I've been relocated, I never get used to it', the passenger responded in a sombre tone.

'Okay, you're gonna be a crappy wingman. No bars for you!', Freeman gave up on making friends.

The train came to a stop, and its doors opened.

'I guess this is the main island', Freeman pondered on the new location. 'Could be Oahu.'.

Freeman looked around the station.

'Okay, no greeters. This kinda sucks...'.

All of a sudden, Freeman lost his vision.

'AAAAAH!', Freeman screamed, his eyes in agony from the bright flash he just witnessed. 'I'M BLIND! I CAN'T SEE! HELP! HELP ME!'.

Freeman regained his vision and the first thing he saw was a suitcase on the ground. He picked it up, and threw it in the general direction of where he was blinded.

'WHAT WAS THAT?! I should have come by boat!', Freeman complained at this inhospitable welcome to his arrival.

Freeman surveyed his surroundings. The train platform was littered with trash, rows of benches sat in the middle of the platform, each divided by a broken four-face clock. At the end of the platform was a giant screen, which an elderly gentleman with a beard was talking from.

'What is this?', Freeman asked in confusion.

'...in the Citadel so thoughtfully provided by our benefactors...', the elderly gentleman said.

'This is like Max Headroom for old people'.

'...I've been proud to call City 17 my home...'.

'Oh, it's a timeshare infomercial, or traveller's insurance, or some crap...'.

Freeman walked down the platform to where he thought he'd find the exit. He turned right, and found a familiar sight behind a wire fence.

'Oooooh! Am I seeing things?!', Freeman took off his glasses, rubbed his eyes, and put his glasses back on. 'Nooooo! Oh this is perfect!'. Freeman was facing a Zapper, sweeping up the trash on the floor.

'Yeah, keep sweeping, Zap-Face! You've got a lot of work ahead of you!', Freeman yelled at the clearly fed up alien. 'Oh, this makes my day! Next to seeing their heads on a stick, this is about the best thing I could have asked for'.

Freeman turned around since the area the Zapper was in was locked off. He continued down the platform to what appeared to be the exit, passing by a cop in riot gear and a gas-mask arguing with one of the passengers that was on Freeman's train.

'Move away! Move away!', the cop ordered.

'But this stuff, it's all I have left!, the passenger begged, trying to grab a suitcase from a trolley stacked with them. The cop pushed the citizen into the trolley, knocking a majority of the suitcases onto the platform.

'Alright, I'm moving! Jeez...', the passenger conceded.

'Aww, I can watch cop fights all day', Freeman said to himself.

Freeman continued through a turnstile just up ahead, kicking away what rubbish lay in his path.

'Heeeeey, I get why there's so much trash! They're leaving it for the alien to sweep up!'. A man sitting at a table in the cafeteria Freeman just entered knocked a rotting Chinese takeaway-box onto the floor in frustration.

'Yeah, look at that! Nobody's even trying. And you know?', Freeman approached the disgruntled man, "I don't blame you. One. Bit.'

'Don't drink the water; the put something in it t- to make you forget!', the man begged to Freeman, hoping he wouldn't make the same mistake as he did. 'I don't even remember how I got here...'

'Hey, I don't either!', Freeman realized, 'What's going on?! Okay, I remember fighting an Elder God, I won because I'm that good, then some lights flashed, the CIA spook made a deal, now I'm here. You know, Time Lord or not, I think he might be a sexual predator; he had me completely parallelized, and I swear to God I thought he was gonna French-kiss me. That was Hell! That was absolute Hell!'

Freeman looked around the cafeteria and realized the few people here were wearing the same set of blue overalls. He walked over to a nearby man sitting at a table.

'Hey, why is everyone wearing the same clothes?'

'I'm working up the nerve to go on...', the man said.

'Is this a work camp or something?', Freeman asked more to himself than the man. 'Did he send me to prison? Why would he do that?'.

Freeman joined the small queue that led up to a checkpoint swarming with more cops in riot gear and gas masks.

'If he wanted me dead, he could have just left me where I was... but he recruited me! So, what's my mission? I don't know these people. I think I'm in the future! That alien didn't get a job sweeping overnight!'.

When it was Freeman's turn to go through the checkpoint, one of the cops pointed him over to the left, which lead to another train platform.

'Oh, great, I don't even have my I.D. This is gonna go well...'.

As soon as Freeman walked through the gateway which lead to the platform, alarms went off, and two cops blocked each side of the gateway.

'Yup, alright, uuuh...', Freeman walked up to the cop that was blocking the way he just came from.

'Hi, I'm a political refugee seeking asylum. My government betrayed me'.

To Freeman's left, a door opened, where a cop walked out and approached him.

'You, citizen, come with me', the cop ordered.

'Yes! "Citizen!" Exactly! I am a citizen! Now we're getting somewhere!'. Freeman followed the cop down a dimly lit, narrow corridor.

'Hey, I don't have an I.D., but you can look up my social security number', Freeman told the cop, who completely ignored him.

They reached the end of the corridor, where the cop knocked on the door. Another cop opened the door and left, with the first cop ordering Freeman inside. Immediately inside the room was a metal chair with blood splatters surrounding it on the floor.

'What the Hell is this?! You do dental work here too?! The chair doesn't have any restraints... You'll get yourself killed trying to torture somebody in this!', Freeman tried to reason with the cop, who was still completely ignoring him.

The cop walked up to some sort of large computer on the other side of the room.

'I'm gonna need me some privacy for this...', the cop said to himself, disabling the cameras either side of the computer. Freeman grabbed a lamp on the desk behind the cop, preparing for the worst.

The cop took off his mask, revealing a tired looking face with bloodshot eyes and stubble.

'About that beer I owe ya!', the cop said.

'Uhh, what?', Gordon asked in confusion.

'It's me, Gordon, Barney, from Black Mesa!'.

'Not ringing a bell...', Freeman admitted.

Barney was hurt Freeman didn't remember his best friend and drinking buddy. Then again, it had been 20 years since they've seen each other, and 20 years is enough time to forget people you're close with, right? Barney put it to the back of his mind and explained to Gordon the situation.

'Sorry for the scare, I had to put on a show for the cameras. I've been working undercover with Civil Protection. I can't take too long or they'll get suspicious; I'm waaay behind on my beating quota'.

As Barney was saying this, he was punching all sorts of different buttons on the computer, and the centre monitor changed from a bunch of blue words to the image of an elderly, balding gentleman wearing bifocals and a lab coat. Gordon immediately recognized the man for his long-time friend, tutor, and colleague, Isaac Kleiner.

'Yes, Barney, what is it? I'm in the middle of a critical test!', Kleiner complained.

'Sorry, Doc, but look who's here', Barney stepped out of the way and allowed Kleiner to see Freeman.

'Yo', Freeman greeted Kleiner.

'Great Scott! Gordon Freeman?! I expect more warning!', Kleiner exclaimed, relieved to see Freeman was still alive after all this time.

'Yeah, you and me both, Doc', Barney said, 'He was about to board the express to Nova Prospekt!'

'Well, Barney, what do you intend?'

'I'm thinking, I'm thinking!', Barney started to look worried. Civil Protection would begin to wonder why his cameras were turned off any second now.

'Alyx is around here somewhere, she would have a better idea how to get him here'.

'As long as he stays away from checkpoints, we should be okay...'

Freeman began to sweat. Checkpoints? Hiding from the cops? Freeman was still a wanted man, or, at least, he assumed so.

'Listen, I gotta go, Doc, we're taking enough chances as it i-'

'I don't know what's going on, guys!', Freeman interrupted Barney. Kleiner bid Gordon farewell and Barney began to let Freeman in on his plan.

'Okay, Gordon, you're gonna have to make your own way to Dr. Kleiner's lab'.

'I need an addre-', it was Barney who interrupted Freeman this time. Or rather, Barney's cries of annoyance as there were loud bangs coming from the door.

'Oh, man! That's what I was afraid of! Get in here, Gordon, before you blow my cover!'. Barney opened a door which lead into a back room.

'Okay! Fine! I don't even know what's happening! I don't care if you get fired!', Freeman complained as he entered the room filled with empty trolleys, large wooden crates, and more trash.

'Get through that window and keep going until you're in the plaza! I'll meet up with you later!', Barney told Freeman before he locked the door.

'So, that's Kleiner's errand boy. This makes more sense now', Freeman told himself as he climbed a ladder to the floor above.

'Hmm, well, I trust Kleiner, and that's about the whole list...'. Freeman climbed onto the windowsill and threw his legs over the balcony, aiming to land on the large wooden crate below. He jumped, and landed on the crate, which collapsed.

"Aaaaaaargh!", Freeman groaned in agony. He stood up and patted himself down.

'I can only assume there's a reason for doing this', Freeman attempted to reason to himself for the situation he's now in. 'I'm too confused to know if I have problems or not'.

Freeman was in a relatively small courtyard. His only way out was up a set of stairs and through a door, which lead back into the train station.

'So, why is Kleiner in Hawaii? He's probably at one of the observatories trying to pinpoint where the aliens came from. Did the CIA grab him too?'

Just up ahead was another gateway, where a lone cop was standing. He saw Freeman, and knocked an empty soda on top of a trash can can onto the floor.

'Pick up the can', the cop ordered.

'Oh, is this what I think it is?', Freeman began to get excited and picked up the can.

'Now, put it in the trash can', the cop ordered again.

'Ah, I see my reputation precedes me!', Freeman grinned as he picked up the soda can and walked back a few feet.

'Alright, how about from here? This is good.' Freeman threw the soda can and it landed in the trash can.

'Easy!'.

'Alright, you can go...', the cop told Freeman, a little bemused.

'You know how many sodas I drank in college? Seriously, I'm the master. I could have made that shot blindfolded. I got my degree under the tutelage of Dr. Pepper', Freeman told the cop, who was ignoring him.

Freeman continued through the train station, passing by what appeared to be an automated food bank dispensing bags of food to people. Freeman realized that he was hungry. The last thing he ate was a bag of expired Doritos, and that was, what, two or three days ago?

'Well, I don't have an I.D., so that's out... I'll just steal something later, there's too many cops here. It's best to grab it out of somebody's hand on the street because they'll chase you but they won't file a report over a stolen hot dog'.

Freeman found the exit to the train station, and what he saw only added to the confusion. The station sat on the corner of a plaza, no doubt the one Barney was talking about. The entrance to every street was blocked off by checkpoints and several cops, and in the distance was the tallest building Freeman had ever seen. The centre of the plaza had another one of those giant monitors Freeman saw when he got off the train, which had the same elderly gentleman speaking from.

'Okay... This is definitely not Hawaii... Yeah, they fucked me. The CIA fucked me...', Freeman muttered to himself in shock. To his left he saw a billboard which contained the lettering 'XCCГ'.

'Is this Russia? Eastern Europe? Damn it! So, I have no money, no I.D., and I'm lost in another country. What a great plan this was! Well, I'm just gonna have to hustle my way out of this...'. Out of the corner of his eye, Freeman saw a lady leaving the train station, carrying a bag of food.

'Yeah, you'll do...'.

Freeman approached the lady with a swagger in his step, wanting to make a first good impression.

'Hey gurl, how you doin'?', Freeman asked in what only he thought was a seductive tone.

'If I talk to you out here, we'll both be in trouble', she said as she walked right past Freeman, not even looking at him.

'What the Hell?! What's going on? Desperate women love me!', Freeman yelled after the lady.

Freeman looked around the plaza for an exit, and found a street entrance which didn't have a checkpoint. He proceeded in that direction.

'This is a complete shitshow! The CIA creep said that he had an important job for me. You know what would have helped? Knowing what my job is!' To his left, there was a lone cop standing outside a barely open doorway into a store. Freeman could barely see several over cops inside interrogating a man.

'What is this, a Gestapo raid? Yeah, great place to drop me with no information! I'm surprised he didn't send me here naked!' Freeman continued down the street. At the end of which was a checkpoint, and behind it was a giant, insect-like creature, with a small body and three 30-foot long legs.

'Oh my God, it's a Tripod! It's a fucking Tripod! I gotta get out of here', Freeman worried in shock. He looked to his left and found a small alleyway, in the middle of which was a wire fence.

'They're real?! How did we- no, I'll figure it out later, I've got to hide. This explains a lot'.

Freeman climbed over the fence and continued down the alleyway.

'Well, they're not capping me. I'll kill everyone in this city before I let that happen! Tripods...'. Above Freeman flew two metal skull-shaped drones.

'This must be where these freaking Servo-skulls came from too. Everything's changed...'

Freeman exited the alleyway and emerged into the courtyard of an apartment block. Two men were talking outside of the back door into one of the apartment buildings.

'Hey, are you two capped?', Freeman approached the men. 'How do you live with yourselves?'

'This is how it all starts, first a building, then the whole block', one of the men said, pointing to two cops standing outside of the back door to another apartment building.

'They have no reason to come to our place', the other reasoned with his friend.

'Don't worry, they'll find one!', the first man responded in an annoyed, sarcastic tone.

'Well, they don't sound capped', Freeman thought, 'I guess that means I don't have to kill them. I need a gun...'. Freeman walked down the courtyard to find a way through.

'Well, Kleiner's here. So I guess I'll hide out until his lackey gets off work then find out where he is'. Freeman found one of the back doors into an apartment building open and entered.

'Because it would have killed him to take THREE SECONDS to give me an address. Nobody knows what they're doing. I see that hasn't changed...'. Freeman found himself in the lobby of the apartment building. He approached the front door.

'Yeah, what was his name... Barney? I did find it kinda hilarious how he's like "It's me, from Black Mesa!". Freeman tried to open the front door, but it was locked with some sort of futuristic metal locking mechanism.

'Damn it! Not this way...'. Freeman turned around and proceeded upstairs to find roof access.

'I mean, what, we had 15,000 employees at that facility alone? He's talking like we're best friends! I don't even remember him! "It's me, Gordon from General Electric!"'. Freeman reached the first floor of the building, where he saw several cops banging on the door of an apartment.

'Great, I feel safer already...'. Freeman continued up the stairs, until he was blocked by another cop telling him he couldn't continue.

'So now what?', Freeman asked himself. 'Man, fuck the CIA! You know what the problem is? We didn't negotiate; all I said was Hawaii, but I would have taken Jamaica, Cayman Islands, anything like that...'


End file.
